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Saturday, December 3, 2011

Weave-Along 3: Weaving and Weaving Those Beads

Not a lot to report here except that I diligently wove this piece and had a great time doing it. Once you get into the more detailed patterns, it's easy to pick up the wrong beads. At least for me it is. I am not so great at following directions, even my own directions. So I had a reasonable failure rate, but mostly I just hummed along and got really annoyed when the light started to fade because I prefer working in daylight.

Bead weaving is pretty straight forward once you get going. Pick up beads, weave them. Pick up beads, weave them. When not using the shedding device you have to be careful to sew through all the beads. When using the shedding device you have to make sure to change the shed every time. Other than picking up the beads in the wrong order, that's about all you have to worry about.

My progress:

Actually, I am five rows past there. I am a little bit into the Greek keys and have about one third to go.

The piece is ready to be rotated to the back somewhat because I can no longer operate the shedding device. Just loosen your wing nuts and pull up on the warping bar until your piece is at a comfortable position. Before tensioning your loom again, feel how nice that woven fabric is. It is ironically drapey and lovely. One would not expect glass beads to have such drape and softness.

Your goal is to try to finish weaving this piece this week so we can cut it off next weekend and begin finishing it.